whom shall i fear? Ilona Clayton
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laire knew she was late for her friendâs party, but she couldnât decide what to wear. The dress she had on was clingier than she had expected. Everyone will see that Iâve put on weight. Her hand hovered over a flowy skirt. But what if they think I look frumpy? She considered a pair of leather trousers instead. Theyâll think Iâm trying too hard. Plus, I wore these the last time we took pictures and weâll definitely take more tonight. She sighed and frowned at the mirror, close to tears. It shouldnât be this difficult. Without realising it, Claire has become enslaved by the opinions of others. She fears what others will think of her. While this is a trivial example, the âfear of manâ is far from uncommon, as Edward Welch lays out in his book, When people are big and God is small. Other examples of âfear of manâ he cites are: being over-committed, experiencing jealousy, telling lies, seeking affirmation from others. 1 Who can claim that they havenât at one point or another experienced at least one, and most likely all, of those things? Yet we donât have to be afraid of others â our rescuer came two thousand years ago. In Luke 4, Jesus goes to the synagogue and reads out his manifesto from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah: âThe Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lordâs favour.â2 While his contemporaries assumed he would
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do so in a very specific context, by acquiring their independence from Rome, Godâs plan for Jesusâs rescue mission was far bigger. Sometimes itâs easy to think that Jesus âonlyâ saved us from hell by dying for us. But his death impacts our lives and how we live our lives now too. Despite our continuous struggle, we have been saved and we have been freed. From death, but also from the dependence on idols - regardless of whether they are objects, or dreams, or people. Jack Miller said âthe devilâs great strategy is to get us problem centred rather than Christ centredâ; this applies to being people centred too. Even if it doesnât feel like it at times, weâve been given what we need to escape the pressure of having to conform to unrealistic expectations or othersâ opinions. Christians are called to live only for an audience of one and thankfully our audience is the One who not only desires purely whatâs best for us, but also embodies love, grace, and forgiveness. Tim Kellerâs short booklet, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, explains that the solution to fearing what other people think isnât to set our own standards but rather to find our identity and purpose in Jesus. Keller argues that because Jesus, being the beloved Son of God, brought his followers into Godâs family